Metadata, or “data about data” has been used by modern computing devices in many contexts to provide a greater range of options and greater efficiency. For example, file properties, such as the date a file was created or last modified have been used to focus searches, make updating software easier, and provide the user with greater information regarding their files. Similarly, usage information can enable software utilities and operating systems to pre-cache various files in anticipation of their usage, thereby improving the overall user experience.
Traditional storage media store and access metadata in a sequential manner, much as they do any other data. Specifically, storage media based on magnetic or optical technology encodes metadata as a sequence of one or more bits in-line with other data, such as the file data itself. As a result, any metadata is in the same addressable namespace as the data itself. For example, metadata can be stored at a first address, and the data itself can be stored at a subsequent address. Thus, if a software program were to request only the metadata of a series of files, traditional storage media would still need to seek over all of the in-line data of the series of files to reach each of the requested metadata. Operating systems, or other software utilities can request the storage of file or folder metadata separately from the file or folder data itself, but this can increase the time required for the storage medium to acquire the data of the file once it is requested, such as based on information received from the metadata.
Modern storage media include, not only media that store data in a sequential manner, such as traditional magnetic and optical storage media, but also storage media, such as solid-state based storage media, that can store data in a random manner, such that any one bit of data is as efficiently accessed as any other bit of data. More specifically, magnetic and optical media require a reading and writing apparatus that physically moves from the physical location of one bit to the physical location of another bit. Consequently, the speed with which such storage media can read or write data is dependent upon the proximity of the locations of the data on the media, since the reading and writing apparatus must physically transition from one location to the other. Conversely, solid-state based storage media can read and write data though the direction of electrical signals to a uniquely specifiable location. Because the speed with which the electrical signals arrive at any particular location within the solid-state based storage media is approximately equivalent, data stored on such media can be written, or read, in approximately the same amount of time irrespective of the particular location of the data.
Modern storage devices include, in addition to the storage media itself, one or more capable controllers, which are designed to manage the data stored on the storage media. These controllers can perform management tasks that are internal to the storage device itself, such as, in the context of solid-state storage media, wear leveling or compaction.